BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Indiana University wrestling team (11-6) concludes the regular season with a pair of road matches at #25 Illinois (5-5-1) and Purdue (7-8-1) on back-to-back evenings (Feb. 17-18). Indiana faces the Fighting Illini Friday night at 7 pm central time while the rivalry showdown with the Boilermakers is slated for a 7 pm eastern time start. Both contests will be shown on the Big Ten Network, tape-delayed.

ALL-TIME SERIES IMPLICATIONS
Illinois holds a slim 39-38-1 lead in the all-time series, but dropped a 22-13 decision in Bloomington last season. On the other side, Indiana has dominated the all-time series with Purdue, owning a 53-31-3 edge that includes the last two meetings and five of the past six match-ups.

CRIMSON AND GOLD CUP VALUE
The wrestling team can push Indiana back ahead in the 2010-11 Smithville Crimson and Gold Cup standings with a win Friday night in West Lafayette. Purdue has swiped the last 1.5 points of the season-long competition between the two rival schools and owns a 3.5-3.0 lead currently. The victor on the mat garners a whole point, however, for their school.

BIG BOYS DOING BIG THINGS
Indiana's two heaviest wrestlers, 197-pounder Matt Powless and HWT Ricky Alcala have been cranking out wins at a rapid pace this season. Powless leads the team with 31 while Alcala is second-best at 25 victories, including three over natinoally-ranked opponents (two of which were top-10 foes).

NUMBERS DON'T LIE
Matt Powless leads all of Division-I wrestling with 12 major decisions and ranks 9th nationally with 31 victories overall (second-most in the Big Ten). Kurt Kinser and Ricky Alcala can also be found in the conference's statistical rankings, slotted 12th and 13th, respectively, with Kinser's nine pins and Alcala's 25 wins.

AMONGST NATION'S ELITE
Four of Indiana's 10 regular starters are ranked in the latest Intermat national rankings. Five different IU grapplers have cracked the top-20 at some point this season. Those currently ranked are:
Paul Young - #8 at 157 lbs.
Matt Powless- #9 at 197 lbs.
Ricky Alcala- #9 at 285 lbs.
Kurt Kinser- #12 at 149 lbs.

Also, the second release of national RPI and Coaches Rankings came out this week. In addition to the four Hoosiers present in the Intermat rankings, Matt Ortega and Justin Brooks can be found. Ortega comes in at 27th in the RPI and 31st in the coaches' eyes while Brooks has earned the No. 33 slot of the RPI.

CRACKING THE CENTURY MARK
Kinser and Young are also racking up wins at an impressive pace. Kinser talled win number 100 of his career by defeating Minnesota's Danny Zilverberg on Jan. 14. He is just the 15th Hoosier in school history to crack the century mark. Meanwhile, Young has had his hand raised 98 times. The redshirt seniors need to reach 112 victories to crack IU's all-time top-10.

FLAT TO THE MAT
High school classmates Kurt Kinser and Paul Young each rank in the top-10 for most career pins in school history.

Kinser is sticking opponents at record-breaking pace, already ranking third all-time with 40 pins and just eight falls shy of surpassing Viktor Sveda (1998-2002) for the top slot. Young owns 31 career pins, pulling him even with former teammate Trevor Perry (2007-10) for eighth place all-time.